


Table Setting

by electricmisso



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 01:10:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13893072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electricmisso/pseuds/electricmisso
Summary: Vanessa attempts to distract Charity with a game of her own.





	Table Setting

"This is an old building, Charity. You're going to pace a hole into the floor." 

Vanessa had followed Charity to the back room of the Woolpack during one of her classic unscheduled breaks. The landlady was, as she had been wont to do, neglecting most of the customers in favor of flirting with one in particular, but it was a slow night, and no one seemed to mind (or dare say anything if they did).

The pub around them was out of focus to both women. Charity's gaze went back and forth between Vanessa's fingers, fiddling with the bar mat, and her lips, shifting between smiles and smirks depending on the level of lasciviousness Charity's last comment had reached. Vanessa, for her part, stared intently into those darting eyes.

A throat cleared to their left, where a village regular (Charity honestly can't even remember which one at this point) was waiting on a fresh pint. His eyes went back and forth between the two women awkwardly. He gave a sort of half-hearted sigh-chuckle, one that you give when a perfectly legitimate situation still leaves you in wordless disbelief. And as Charity glanced back at the table he'd come from, his small group of friends all had the same look in their eyes. If anyone was used to looks, it was Charity. This one was different, but she could still recognize it.

It wasn't a look of disdain for Charity; it was a look of pity for Vanessa.

She turned on her heel and stomped off without a word. 

The silent turn of events had left Vanessa paralyzed with confusion. She was only snapped out of her state when she caught sight of Chas, wide eyes imploring her to follow the other woman and figure out what the hell it was this time.

That's how she ended up here, on the couch, somewhere in the middle (hopefully near the end) of a long and winding Charity rant.

"I'm a lot of things, but I'm not stupid. It's not as if i don't know what people say. About us. Well, mostly me."

Vanessa has never known a person who walks such a tightrope between swaggering confidence and self-doubt. At this point, she knows it's best to listen, let the other woman get out her frustrations; a pent-up and boiled-over Charity too much to handle, even for Vanessa. Her passionate anger could burn the whole village to the ground if there was no one around to tamp the flames.

"They say, 'What is such a kind, beautiful, brilliant woman doing with mean old Charity?' Well, I tell you what she's doing. She's having the orgasms that you could never even dream of giving a woman, dickhead."

Listening is good, Vanessa decides, but matching wits, striking up their playful banter, might be a worthy distraction.

"I know you're trying to multi-task, and yell and brag at the same time, but the only part I really heard was that you think I'm beautiful and brilliant and kind." 

That at least stopped the pacing. "Course I do, babe. Would I be with someone if I didn't think that about them?" Without missing a beat, she adds, "Don't answer that."

"It's just not every day one gets a compliment from Charity Dingle. I'm still soaking it in."

Charity scoffs. "You act like I never say anything nice about you."

"Well...do you?" she replies, leaving space for an answer that doesn't come. "And if you do, you can't help but chase it with sarcasm so that I forget you were ever nice in the first place."

Charity cocks her head and raises a brow. "You have to admit, I'm nice in plenty of other ways."

Vanessa rolls her eyes. "...or an innuendo. It's fine, Charity." She gets up and moves behind the couch, putting her arms around the other woman's shoulders.

"It doesn't bother me. I know you communicate your affection through insults like a teenage boy," which turns Charity's dreamy gaze into a scowl. "If I'd wanted roses and sonnets, I wouldn't have entered into this...joint venture of ours, now would I?."

Charity's eyes go wide. "I _could_ do sonnets and roses! I _could_ do anything I set my mind to," she says, removing herself from Vanessa's grasp and tromping into the kitchen. "I just don't! Because I didn't know that's what you wanted!"

Vanessa knows its useless trying to get Charity to back down from a challenge. And this one, well, it might just be fun for Vanessa anyway.

"Well now's as good a time to start as any, isn't it? Go on, then."

"What are you on about? Besides, Chas'll kill me if I don't get back to work."

Vanessa can't control the loud "HA!" that exits her mouth."Yeah right. You'd have been dead years ago if that were the case." Her gaze becomes stern, challenging. "I'm seeing someone who just said they could shower me with compliments, but I'm not hearing anything coming out of her mouth." 

Charity crosses her arms and becomes contemplative, slowly walking back toward the subject of her scrutiny.

"Well, for a start, you never leave the toilet seat up."

Vanessa rolls her eyes and laughs. Charity seems to provoke that reaction from her often. "Carry on."

"You spend all day surrounded by disgusting farm animals and still show up at the end of the day smelling like sunshine. I don't know how you manage. Must be your...natural pheromones or something." 

Charity breaks eye contact and her gaze wanders off in disbelief. 

"And I've just said that you smell like sunshine. Who am I? What have you done to me?" She pouts and begins to plod off in (mostly) mock disgust, but doesn't get far.

Vanessa grabs her wrist and draws her eyes back. "Hey, focus on the task at hand, please. I'm enjoying this."

"Aren't you?" Charity quirks an eyebrow and the woman in front of her smiles as she moves closer, only slightly, giving Vanessa a full-body once-over.

"God, you really are gorgeous. And you can _wear_ a jumper." Vanessa giggles.

Charity's smirk becomes sweetly serious. "You're a really good mum." It makes Vanessa smile, truly touched. "And sister, and daughter, and friend......" She could say girlfriend, but the moment is becoming far too genuine, too real. So she continues. "And....cow-bum handler."

Vanessa tightens her hold around Charity's waist. "Well, you'd know, wouldn't you?" she retorts with an added smirk of her own.

Charity's smirk turns downward. "I take it back. I take it all back." She begins to turn away.

"No," Vanessa says, grabbing the sides of Charity's face with both hands, running a thumb along her cheekbone. "This is the first game of yours that I've actually liked playing." She smiles. "It can't be over yet."

"Right," Charity begins. "Well...you're compact." A pause. "Easy for travel," she says as she grabs Vanessa by the hips and lifts her onto the table as the smaller woman lets out a surprised squeak,

Charity stands between her legs, staring into Vanessa's eyes, knowing she's successfully knocked her off balance, quite literally. The smaller woman has to brace herself by gripping the sides of the table. She'd protest if this wasn't becoming so much fun.

They're practically touching at the waist, Charity's hands raking up the sides of Vanessa's torso, coming to a stop at her chest. 

"You have the most magnificent breasts I've ever seen. And I've seen," she inhales wistfully, "my own breasts, so that's really saying something." Her hands don't stop even as Vanessa trembles with laughter. No matter how racy things get between the two of them (and boy, do they), there's always laughter. Maybe that's why they've lasted this long.

Charity moves her lips to Vanessa's neck while her hands travel back down the smaller woman's body. "I really fit quite perfectly here, don't I?" she whispers into the crook of Vanessa's neck, lavishing her most sensitive spot.

"That's nice," Vanessa sighs.

"Mm, isn't it?" she asides during her continued efforts to ruin Vanessa completely. It's working, and Vanessa realizes she's still gripping the sides of the table, white-knuckled. Charity brings herself face to face with the smaller woman. Both sets of eyes are filled with lust, but Charity's also contain an earnestness that isn't often seen there, by Vanessa, or anyone.

"You make me want to be a better person." Vanessa's heart is bursting, along with her loins. 

"So much so," she adds, beginning to step back, "that I realize now, I really should get back to work, stop leaving Chas in the lurch."

She stands back far enough to take in her full masterwork: Vanessa, struck dumb and panting, legs splayed open, still fully clothed, on her table. She commits the sight to memory.

"You can't be serious!" Vanessa exclaims, her exasperation from being left so wanting making her voice rise.

"Oh, but I can be." She pauses, her eyes going wide and a little misty. "And it's all because of you," Her mock sincerity breaks as she lets out a cackle.

"This is low, Charity. Even for you."

"Bet you wish I'd gone a bit lower, babe," Charity smirks as she rights herself, albeit she looks a lot less mussed than Vanessa does at the moment. "Don't worry, there's still plenty of day left. Might want to get off the table in the meantime, though. Don't want anyone coming in looking for a snack and finding, well..." She grins.

As Vanessa gets down and tries to make herself presentable, Charity starts to head back to the pub, but first adds, "Seriously though, thank you. For distracting me. I can't even remember what I was upset about."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find something else to be mad about before the day is out," Vanessa replies, the frustration at being left high and dry poking through her voice.

"And I'm sure you'll find a way to make it better." Their eyes meet one last time before Charity heads back through to the Woolpack. "You always do."

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. well folks, this is the first fanfic i've ever written in my **life.** and the first bit of fiction period i've written in four years. so, you know, sorry if it was crap and all that. i just fell in love with these two and their rapport so quickly, and ideas kept coming out of nowhere and i just had to let them out and here we are.  
>  2\. i'm also very, very new to this fandom. as in i only started watching a month or so ago because tumblr made me. so i'm sorry if any of the story/setting details are off and took you out of the story. wikipedia is only so helpful.  
> 3\. bonus points if you got the misquoted 30 Rock reference.  
> 4\. come hang with me on tumblr @electric-eccentricity, because it's basically all Vanity and other gay shit at this point. fun!!


End file.
